The Conversation: VA Gears Up For Veteran Vaccination Plan

Veterans Vaccine Plan; Reality Check: Vaccine Skepticism; Hawaii Small Business Woes; Kalaupapa Concert; “Allegiance” Memoir

Veterans Vaccine Plan

The Veterans Affairs office just hosted a virtual town hall meeting to take questions from its members about when they will be offered the chance to be vaccinated. Amy Rohlfs is the Public Affairs officer for the VA. We talked to her yesterday afternoon while the first of the Pacific Islands VA staff in Guam was getting the first doses.

Reality Check: Vaccine Skepticism

Honolulu Civil Beat’s reporter Brittany Lyte joins us with a story about growing skepticism around the COVID-19 vaccines.

   Hawaii Small Business Woes As 2020 comes to a close, many small business owners are looking back on a devastating year. While various programs have offered support in the ways of payroll protection or pivot grants, more entrepreneurs are asking the question “why isn’t our government doing more?” The Conversation’s producer Harrison Patino reached out to various members of Hawaii’s small business community to see what they had to say.   Kalaupapa Concert Today we turn our attention to the remote settlement of Kalaupapa which up until this month was the only county that was Covid-19 free. We talked to Ka ‘Ohana O Kalaupapa Executive Director Val Monson about a virtual concert that is part music-event part documentary about the musicians of the Hansen’s disease settlement.   

“Allegiance” Memoir

Earlier this week, we talked about a new memoir writing program from Watermark Publishing called the Halia Aloha Series.

The series editor is Darien Hsu Gee, who also produced a new memoir called “Allegiance” using the micro-narrative techniques in the program. Here’s an excerpt from the book, titled “Photograph: Poolside Selfie at the Four Seasons Hualalai.”